Everything's Better With Princesses - Television Tropes & Idioms

Sailor Moon turned out to be Princess Serenity, whom everyone had been searching for. In the manga and the English dub, all the other senshi were princesses, too.
- There's Princess Kakyuu in Sailor Stars. One gets the impression that the Sailor Soldiers exist to protect their planet's Princess, because when Kakyuu gives up her life to protect the Starlights from Galaxia in the anime, they go on a suicidal bumrush at the Big Bad to avenge her.
  - Ironically, at the end they are the ONLY characters to survive without the help of Sailor Moon's revival powers.
Somewhat subverted in Zero no Tsukaima where Henrietta is the perfect princess... except she's actually the Queen.
Revolutionary Girl Utena, while not having any real royalty among its cast, thoroughly explores the stereotype and one of the main plotlines focuses on the titular protagonist trying to decide whether she wants to become "a princess" or "a prince". The series is also famous for postulating that all girls are princesses but there aren't enough princes for every one.
This article wouldn't be complete if it didn't mention the most twisted, savage, yet strangely hilarious subversion of the stereotype in question: Dai Mahou Touge.
Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch has another princess brigade.
An odd twist: in Futari Wa Pretty Cure, the princess was a typical cute, mostly useless Distressed Damsel... and the mascot creature. Hikari from season two, however, filled this role more traditionally, despite being (somewhat) a Queen.
- Elsewhere in the Pretty Cure franchise, Yes! Precure 5 added a Princess among an influx of royals. Yes, they were also mascot creatures.
- In The Movie of Yes! Precure 5, the girls visit "Princess Land", a theme park where the patrons all get to wear ball gowns and pretend they're princesses. As you would expect, it seems to be a very popular place.
The Six Flowers of the Hibiscus Shield (magic fairies living in Orihime's hair clips) became the Six Princess Shielding Flowers in the English dub of Bleach.
- Somewhat justified in that the second part of her name, Hime, literally translates to "princess".
Code Geass largely subverts the stereotype, seeing Britannian princesses (three, thus far) fight and experience all cruelties of war just like their brothers. Euphie seemed to fit, with her naivety and struggle for peace, which only made her subversion the cruelest of all. Though what they did to Nunnally was pretty sick, too...
- True, but you overlook Cornelia, who doesn't even start off well. She's vicious (and a virulent racist) from the get-go. Even if she does have a soft spot for Euphemia. She's a genius, though.
Vision of Escaflowne has some princesses who fit the stereotype and some who don't.
Hyatt in Excel Saga is apparently a princess of some alien race, but this is never elaborated further in the series.
Grenadier contains a notable aversion: its young female royal is a crowned Empress, not a princess.
Gundam successors like toying with the notion:
- This probably goes back to the original series, whose Sayla Mass (real name: Artesia Som Deikun) is a princess-in-exile of The Kingdom-like Republic of Zeon founded by her father. By the time of MSG, however, the former Republic is taken over by the villainous Zabi family and transformed into a "Principality", so her heritage doesn't do her any favor. There's also Kycillia Zabi, who subverts the trope in a big way, being more coldblooded & ruthless than all but one of her brothers.
- 08th MS Team has Aina Sakharin, the Love Interest whose family was treated as nobles in the aformentioned Principality.
- Zeta Gundam and Gundam ZZ have Mineva Zabi, the last member of the Zabi family. She also features prominently in the latest Gundam Unicorn novel, and other (non-canon) adaptations.
  - Mineva is just a puppet, though. She's seven years old and ruthlessly manipulated. By the way, how is she considered a princess? She's the last surviving Zabi, she should be queen even if she does need Haman as a regent.
  - She's still a princess because Zeon is principality, not a kingdom. The ruler of a principality has the title of "prince" or "princess", depending on gender.
- Gundam F91 has Cecily Fairchild, aka Berah Ronah.
- Victory Gundam has Shakti Kareen.
- G Gundam, the first show with a new continuity, also brings the first real princess, the very Moe Moe Maria Louise of Neo France.
- Relena Darlian (real name: Relena Peacecraft) of the Sanc Kingdom in Gundam Wing. Like Sayla, she is exiled, too, and comes with an evil brother.
- Turn A Gundam: Diana Soreil is not a princess; she's the Queen.
- Gundam SEED has two subversions: Cagalli Yula Athha is a legitimate but Rebellious Princess of Orb Union, while Lacus Clyne is not a real royalty but de facto the most powerful political figure in the entire Earth sphere. She is also much more lady-like than tomboyish Cagalli.
  - Lacus is a real royalty, just too minor for it to matter.
- Gundam 00 drives it to the extreme with Marina Ismail, arguably, an Expy of Relena and Lacus and an elected princess of a constitutional monarchy.
- Fact: it's easier to list those Gundam series without a princess or two, than those with them. So Yeah...
Murder Princess is yet another subversion. The real princess of The Kingdom of Forland is a weak-willed Ojou but soon switches bodies with the most badass Action Girl in history, who proceeds to kick much ass and become the titular character.
Pacifica in Scrapped Princess is a subversion as she is a pure-blood princess but must endure very harsh conditions, starting with the small fact that almost the entire world population believes that her head on a stake is a good idea...
Sakura in Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle, and side-characters Tomoyo and Emeraude.
Martian Successor Nadesico spent a whole episode late in the series establishing that Ruri was actually the princess of a cheap imitation (literally The Theme Park Version) of Switzerland. This episode was never referenced again, not even in Ruri's next Previously On narration in which she's too embarrassed to explain it. Also played with in the same episode, when she attempts to research the concept and hits a Magical Girl series with her first search. Her response is to narrow the parameters.
Lord Genome, immortal ruler of Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann's pseudo-Empire, apparently genetically engineered little human girls just for the sake of having a princess around. The result we see, Nia, hits this trope pretty damn hard in title, attitude, appearance, and usefulness.
Guess who's a real princess in Mai-Otome? Not Mashiro, who is crowned queen in the third episode. Not even Nina, the real heir to Windbloom's throne (who never claims it). It's actually Mai, whose brother is the prince of Zipang — a fact often overlooked. And Mashiro is a subversion, not just because she's spoiled, but because everyone expects her to be responsible, and when she abuses her power, it never ends well.
Fushigiboshi No Futago Hime, starting with the titular twins and encompassing most of the main cast. The marketing was all over this, tiaras and all: the publicity events were even called "Princess Parties" and they gave out kingdom seals.
Sasami seems to embody this trope the most in the Tenchi Muyo! universes. Aeka also has her moments, but isn't quite as sweet.
Dianeira in Heroic Age somewhat averts the trope. She's portrayed as pure and a borderline Messiah, but has a limited wardrobe, plot-relevant powers, and has had to do diplomacy and give people orders.
Amelia from Slayers. She's a princess of Sailune, an influential kindgom — though you wouldn't know it from looking. Somewhat ditzy and easily confused, she makes up for her naivete with sheer bravado and single-minded belief in "the power of justice". A decent mage in her own right, she quixotically pursues her quest for justice by following Lina and fighting (what appears to her as) villains. Hilarity frequently ensues.
Subverted in Naruto. Sakura is the only one of the main Power Trio that comes from a normal civilian family; more directly, Tsunade is descended from a former Hokage and often referred to as "Princess", but is the most Real Life-administrator-like Kage depicted so far.
- To be fair, that is probably because three of the four Hokages preceding her were dead when the series started and the Third was something of a figurehead (at least after he came out of retirement due to the Fourth's death). And since the main characters are in Konoha, there's not much of a reason to see the other Kages doing boring paperwork.
Asuna Kagurazaka of Mahou Sensei Negima seems to be moving towards this. And Konoka, to a lesser extent.
- Asuna is confirmed as a princess. Naturally, soon after this revelation was made, she was captured by the enemy.
- Recent events point to the strong possibility of Negi's mother being a princess as well — and Asuna's older sister. If this turns out true, it would mean that Negi is therefore a prince!
Thanks to the title, Princess Tutu seems like it'd play this trope straight... particularly since the main character Duck (or Ahiru) turns into the titular Magical Girl. But the show subverts this with an Aesop that Duck has to accept the person she truly is, and eventually has to give up the ability to become both Tutu and a girl (she's an actual bird). The Dark Magical Girl Princess Kraehe has a difficult home life as well (... to say the least).
- Later on, when Princess Kraehe shows up, Herr Drosselmeyer comments "Two Heroines? That simply won't" do.
Flame of Recca has Yanagi, who Recca declares is his princess at the beginning of the series, and this becomes her nickname from then on. Later on in the manga, we learn that she's the reincarnatation of a real princess named Sakura, who once knew Recca's father.
Deconstructed in Rose of Versailles, as Marie Antoinette thinks this trope is how she should live, which adds a lot of Irony to the series. (How much she did in actual history is a matter of debate.)
- Well, let's put it this way: Marie Antoinette liked to go to the countryside. She thought it was lovely and idyllic. Problem: No one was particularly interested in disabusing her of this notion. So when she got there, it would be a sanitized version of the real thing; the cows were scrubbed, there wasn't a pat to be seen, chickens got fresh hay every hour on the hour (for pooping on, I mean), and such peasants as might have been lurking around were pretty clean and well-fed too. So when the news came that the peasants were revolting because they had no bread, it's almost a wonder that she didn't actually say a certain famous, if inaccurate, expression of her belief that the peasantry had access to sugary confections.
At least one of the female Spider Riders is royal, too.
Averted in Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha. Like many Magical Girl shows with a fantasy bent, female royals exist, in this case, from Ancient Belka. However, unlike many Magical Girl shows with a fantasy bent, they are not princesses. Instead, they are Kings that possess massive destructive capabilities that make them symbols of power that lead their country to war. Yeah, the title of King seems to be unisex for Ancient Belka. The main character adopts the clone of one of them as her kid.
- That said, ViVid reveals that they are still referred to as Princesses before they take the title of King. The Saint family at least.
Go Lion (Voltron) had Princess Fala (Allura), ruler of the planet that Golion protected who'd later go on to pilot the Blue Lion when the original pilot was killed off (or Put On A Bus in Voltron).
Princess Sapphire, the titular Princess Knight.
Rather disturbing example in Yu-Gi-Oh!, in Kaiba's virtual reality video game there is a princess whose appearance is based on Mokuba. (Probably Kaiba lampshading Mokuba's Damsel In Distress tendencies.) Naturally, Yu-Gi-Oh The Abridged Series had a field day with this.
Yugi: Just what the hell are you anyway? Are you a boy or a girl?
Joey: Maybe it's a shemale. You know, like Bakura.
Kuro in Kurokami is a princess.
Kimi no Kakera, a manga by the same author as Sai Kano, suvberts this trope, stomps on it, drags it through the mud, and shoots it. Icoro, the child princess in the story, has been reduced to little more than a servant to the people of the ruling Politik and Warmonger tribes after a political coup ended the monarchy and her parents disappeared. She bears backbreaking work, little food, and constant cruelty from everyone (including the talking stuffed animal that's supposed to be her companion) so that none of it will be forced on her her little brother, the prince, who is also blind. The suffering common people that she meets later don't know about any of this, and on hearing she's princess, scorn her for the priviledge they believe she enjoys. It's pretty much to the point that her being the princess is the root of all Icoro's problems.
Guess who Esther Blanchett in Trinity Blood turns out to be in the end. Yes, you got it: the long-lost heiress to the Albion throne, of all places.
Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind, not that you could tell there's royalty around without being told so.
Gratuitous princesses are taken to their logical extreme in Macross Frontier, where the writers don't let the fact that Princess Alto is neither nobility nor even female get in the way of making him the series's pretty little Rebellious Princess.

Close Anime & Manga

Princess Diana of Themiscyra, AKA Wonder Woman. The only thing she has in common with most on this list is the tiara (though she has been known to break out the dress for formal occasions).
Princess Projectra (Vauxhall-Wynzorr) of the Legion of Superheroes is a fabulously rich illusion caster from the treasure-planet of Orando. (Until her homeworld was blown up.)
Although she has no royal blood at all, Princess Powerful would like to have a word with you.

Close Comics

The Disney Princesses are officially, to date:

Princess Snow White — Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs (1937)
Cinderella — Cinderella (1950)
Princess Aurora — Sleeping Beauty (1959)
Princess Ariel — The Little Mermaid (1989)
Belle — Beauty And The Beast (1991)
Princess Jasmine — Aladdin (1992)
Tiana—The Princess And The Frog (2009): Notably, the first one to be created after "Disney Princess" became an official franchise. Her friend Charlotte seems to be a spoof on this mindset.
- Most of these characters become either princesses, by marriage or birth. Oh, and the REAL reason Disney didn't add Giselle from Enchanted to the lineup was because they'd have to pay the actor royalties. (Although it's also true that Giselle never technically becomes a princess, going from a peasant to a fashion designer.)

The reason the Disney Animated Canon is stuffed with princesses is actually because they draw so much on fairy tales... but as of the 1990s, they centered merchandising on the princess characters, and you know the rest. Actually, only some of the princess characters got in; those that had bit parts, were from unpopular movies, or just weren't as merchandisable were shoved in the back. And they've tried a few times to add non-royals into the line, despite Mulan, Esmeralda and Alice definitely not being princesses, either to ease concerns that the classic pantheon wasn't dynamic and/or integrated enough (Mulan being the best Action Girl they could use, since they didn't have one) or to fill out various storybooks, music albums, etc. Pocahontas, another honorary member of the group, actually is, but might not have been considered "classic" when the line was introduced. (That, or her clothes aren't considered pretty enough.)
- Naturally, this was somewhat referenced in Kingdom Hearts, where those who qualified as "Princesses of Heart" just happened to be popular characters on both sides of the Pacific. Alice, a non-princess, was in fact added to the list, with the thin justification that she becomes a queen in the original books (and as foreshadowing that another seemingly normal character is also one).
  - Ariel was in fact REMOVED from the list for Kingdom Hearts, probably because, as a mermaid, she wouldn't be able to leave Atlantica to interact with the larger plot.
  - But she gets to be an Action Girl Guest Star Party Member.
  - Surprised that Pocahontas isn't in the lineup,considering she's The Chiefs Daughter and all. She's also actually referred to in-film as "princess" so don't understand why she is usually left out.
Spoofed all over the place in the Shrek franchise, especially the third film. (The princesses from that got their own toy line, too, but this seems to be a further parody rather than hypocrisy.)
Let's not forget Princess Leia. The plot of the series could have been exactly the same were she not a princess (the princess of a country that is brutally destroyed in the first movie!), and yet she is. (Padme from the prequel series was a queen, though, and only that in the first movie.)
- Weirdly, Padme is specifically an elected queen, even though she's barely in her teens. One wonders what the other candidates must have been like.
  - This seems to be common practice on Naboo; Episode III featured an even younger Queen, and according to the EU most Naboo politicians retire at 20, though both Padme and Palpatine defied this trend. Well, we do get the impression the planet's supposed to be too idealistic for its own good. The EU also gave Padme a Princess title in her past; she was Princess of Theed (and governing the place at the age of 12!) before she was elected Queen.
  - Monarchy does not work that way!
  - Admittedly, in the Expanded Universe, they explain this as Naboo colonists coming from another world, which had (and continues to have) a hereditary monarchy. While the Naboo gave up the government structure, they kept the traditional titles for head of state and other positions despite their elected nature. Reasonable, though unlikely.
- Also, in the Star Wars Expanded Universe, there's:
  - Jedi Princess Kendalina;
  - Warrior Princess Plourr, X-Wing Pilot;
  - One-armed Jedi Princess (later Queen) Tenel Ka.
Averted in Dungeons & Dragons The Movie: Thora Birch's character was an empress.
In the movie Stardust all the princes (save one) are evil, but their sister the princess is as sweet as can be. The book avoided this. She wasn't exactly evil, but growing up surrounded by vindictive princes and later a vindictive witch made her very shrewd and cold-hearted. In both versions, she is the hero's mother.
Altogether subverted by Mirror Mask: The Dark Princess is the Evil Counterpart of the main character, who is an ordinary circus girl.
Bill and Ted have a time machine in which they can bag any historical babe they wanted. No points in guessing who they pick.
The makers of the Dead or Alive movie probably thought of this trope when they made Kasumi a ninja princess.
A Kid in King Arthur's Court took out Guinivere and gave the inexplicably unmarried King Arthur two daughters, Princess Katey and Princess Sarah.
The Disney Channel movie Princess Protection Program gives princesses...well, their own protection program should they find themselves in danger. Presumably this trope is the reason why princes are not mentioned as getting the same privileges.

Close Films

A Little Princess.
Averted in the Ella Enchanted novel. She marries a Prince, yet specifically requests not to be a Princess.
Lloyd Alexander's The Prydain Chronicles: The chatty redhead who gets protagonist Taran out of a scrape (and proceeds to irritate him for the rest of the book) in The Book of Three turns out to be "Eilonwy daughter of Angharad daughter of Regat of the Royal House of Llyr." She's the last surviving member of a royal, magic-wielding bloodline. The complications of her ancestry form the plot of the third book in the series.
- Justified, somewhat, in that Prydain is based on ancient Wales, which did have a number of sub-kingdoms united under the rule of a single High King. So finding a stray princess wandering around Prydain was less contrived than it might be in another fictional country.
From Edgar Rice Burroughs's works: A Princess of Mars. Thuvia, Maid of Mars. Tara in Chessmen of Mars. Valla Dia in The Master Mind of Mars. And many others. Not always evident at first.
Averted with the ruthless, patricidal/fratricidal Idaan Machi in The Long Price Quartet.
The Princess Diaries seems to embrace this, so say the pretty covers and The Film Of The Book. Actually, the books go into a lot of politics and how "I Just Want To Be Normal" is not such an odd complaint if you happen to become a princess. The protagonist's grandmother especially is used to dash the princess dream; besides the ridiculous self-preserving measures she uses on the titular princess, dear old Grandmere also refuses to let her ex-daughter-in-law invite her own friends to her own wedding, feeling embarrassed by them, and instead invites the likes of Martha Stewart and Coco Chanel. Mia's Soapbox Sadie friend is used in contrast to say that the monarchy is outdated and its glamour far too overrated. Nevertheless, the films are advertised as the most blatantly plotless little-girl's-wish-fulfillment thing ever.
In the eleventh book of A Series of Unfortunate Events, spoilt brat Carmelita Spats dresses up as a "tap-dancing ballerina fairy princess veterinarian."
You want a princess? There's, like, hundreds of princesses in War and Peace. There aren't even that many princes. Justified because in Imperial Russia, the title could (and usually did) mean the top rank of non-royal nobility. There were princ(ess)es of Imperial blood, who were actually related to the Tsar, and there were the noble-but-not-royal kind.
- Royal princesses were usually titled Grand Duchess rather than Princess, the implication of the title being that they ranked higher than a regular princess. Since other princesses were non-royal, this was accurate.
  - Grand Duchesses were the direct relatives of the Emperor. Indirect ones were titled prince(ss)es of imperial blood.
Pick a fantasy series. Any fantasy series.
Oz's Princess Ozma and Princess Dorothy.
~~Averted~~ in The Wheel of Time. Elayne is the daughter of a queen and presumptive heir to the throne of Andor, but though the word "princess" appears exactly once, referenced as an archaic title that had long ago fallen out of use, "Daughter-heir" is used with the same frequency and arrogance.
Princess Marjorie Bruce from Girl in a Cage. She, of course, is the girl in the cage
Averted in the Bahzell series. Although the main character is technically a prince, he's way way down the list to inherit the throne and Word Of God states he won't be king. Further he's the son of a king, but the king was chosen from all the tribal chiefs of their people.
- It gets further complicated with many different cultures and a rash of history that leaves the king of as least one good size country using the title of baron due to the historical king being long dead and no noble above king surviving the Godamerung. So far most of the women saved in the series tend to be lower class being abused by evil royals. And the badass female warriors all have lower class backgrounds.
Averted in The Council Wars by none of the good guys having true royals. The government is a republic modeled off Rome.
Subverted in the book Summer Knight of the Dresden Files, where the Big Bad turns out to be Aurora, the effectively-princess of the usually-nicer half of the Fair Folk.
Princess Irene, the title princess of George MacDonald's The Princess and the Goblin and The Princess and Curdie.
While the princess stared bewildered, with her head just inside the door, the old lady lifted hers, and said, in a sweet, but old and rather shaky voice, which mingled very pleasantly with the continued hum of her wheel:
"Come in, my dear; come in. I am glad to see you."
That the princess was a real princess you might see now quite plainly; for she didn't hang on to the handle of the door, and stare without moving, as I have known some do who ought to have been princesses but were only rather vulgar little girls. She did as she was told, stepped inside the door at once, and shut it gently behind her.
- However, it is worth mentioning that the author either subverts this trope or takes it Up To Eleven by breaking the fourth wall to tell the reader that they are a princess too.
Princess Saralinda in James Thurber's The 13 Clocks
Quite literal in The Phantom Tollbooth, with the Princesses of Sweet Rhyme and Pure Reason, of the Kingdom of Wisdom. They are apparently high enough in authority that their brothers King Azaz and the Mathemagician, rulers of their own respective countries, appeal to them when there's a dispute... and once they're banished, Wisdom goes to Hell in a handbasket. It's only after they're rescued in The Quest that the Kingdom becomes sane again... everything is, in fact, better with them in charge.
In Patricia A McKillip's The Bell at Sealey Head, sometimes Emma opens a door and meets up with the Princess Ysabo; they talk, but Emma never dares go into the room for fear the door won't open for her.
Liriel Baenre. Of course her kingdom is evil, so she's fleeing it.
The Belgariad has, of course, Princess Ce'nedra. The same author also has Princess Danae, who's really the Child Goddess Aphrael in the Sparhawk novels.
Rangers Apprentice has Princess Cassandra, who eventually becomes a Rebellious Princess Action Girl.
Brandon Sanderson seems to like princesses. Elantris has Sarene of Teod, a highly competent politician and diplomat (and part-time Action Girl). In Warbreaker we have Siri, a happy-go-lucky free spirit who gets forced into a marriage with someone everyone thinks is an A God Am I Evil Overlord. The truth is rather more complex. Her older sister Vivenna is highly intelligent and poised but has her illusions about the moral superiority of herself and her nation pretty much torn up during the course of the book though she becomes a better person for it, gaining sympathy for the lower classes she never had before. They have a middle sister too, a member of the national religious order who doesn't do a whole lot to advance the plot.
Averted in The Chronicles of Narnia where the two Pevensie girls, Susan and Lucy, become Queens of Narnia in the first book, bypassing Princess all together.
Most of the royalty featured in the Royal Diaries series are princesses. Even if they only became famous as a queen, the books usually begin when the girl in question is twelve or so.
Another aversion comes from Mary deMorgan's ''The Necklace of Princess Fioremonde" about an evil princess who traps her suitors' spirits in the beads of her necklace.

Close Literature

Power Rangers Wild Force has Princess Shayla as their mentor. No particular plot-relevant reason for her to be a princess.
Inverted in Tin Man: True, DG is a princess and the leader of the resistance, but it's also all her fault that there's a need for a resistance in the first place! She also seems to conspicuously lack the floofy dress and tiara.
Xena Warrior Princess, as the title implies.
- Gabrielle, her sidekick, was apparently ALSO a princess — of the Amazons. Or So I Heard.
The Mystic Knights of Tir Na Nog featured a Five Man Band of warriors who utilized elemental — earth, air, fire, water and, oddly, forest. Four of the Knights were male, one was female — Princess Deirdre.
Kings is good for this. In a court filled with adulterers, corruption, misdirection and all manner of levels of deceit, only Princess Michelle cares about the health care of the people and is willing to sacrifice. Unfortunately for her, Good Is Dumb.

Close Live Action TV

The Coup "Wear Clean Draws", the rapper Boots Riley gives advice to his daughter:
"Tell your teacher princesses are evil/how they got all the money is they kill people"

Close Music

Barbie plays a princess in some of her movies. Plus some of the dolls are names as though she is a princess, like the "Winter Princess" line.
Apparently, all the My Little Ponies are now princesses. Something Positive isn't entirely sure how that works.
- The Direct To Video special The Princess Promenade reveals that making everyone a princess was just a way for Wysteria to get out of being the (rather arbitrarily chosen) princess herself.
The game "Pretty Pretty Princess"

Close Toys

Princess Peach of Super Mario Bros is always a princess, even when she's the ruler of Mushroom Kingdom. Some adaptations add on a father, but he's mysteriously absent otherwise.
- When there's a need for more female characters, like the Mario Party games, there's also Princess Daisy.
  - Actually, she was kidnapped by Tatanga in Super Mario Land for Game Boy (the O-riginal), so she actually has her own kingom. It's called Sarasaland.
- Super Mario Galaxy also had Princess Rosalina, although she doesn't seem to be a princess at all.
  - The game seemed to suggest she came from Peach's family, although her characterization is more of The High Queen than a regular princess (she's certainly queen of the Lumas).
  - As Moviebob pulls it, Rosalina is God. That's right, they took this trope to the next level.
Princess Zelda seems to suffer similar Parental Abandonment.
- Not exactly; Zelda's father the king was referred to several games. In A Link to the Past he was somehow removed by Agahnim and "recovered" during the ending seuqnce. In Ocarina of Time he was just off camera in the scene where Link and Zelda spy on Ganondorf during their first meeting; god knows what happened to him after that. He was actually a named character (Gustav) in The Minish Cap and charged Link with his mission after Zelda was turned to stone by Vaati.
- It gets especially bad in Twilight Princess, in which Zelda is the actual, absolute ruler of Hyrule — when the evil overlord invades, he goes to her to get the surrender! Yet Zelda still holds the title "Princess". This goes double, because the titular Twilight Princess is also apparently the absolute albeit recently deposed ruler of the Twilight Realm.
  - Of interest is the fact that Midna was apparently elected by the people to serve as the Princess, instead of Zant. A democratic monarchy. That may just be the first time that particular situation has come up in a video game.
  - Note that while "Princess" is not the correct title for the female ruler of a kingdom, it is correct for the female ruler of a principality. Since Hyrule is always called a kingdom, the problem still applies.
  - According to the Super Smash Bros Brawl manual, Zelda is indeed a queen by the end of the game...
  - Furthermore, according to the Twilight Princess trading card deck, Zant's arrival in Hyrule came a few days before what was supposed to have been Zelda's coronation day. So she was going to be Queen, but the invasion kind of disrupted the proceedings.
- Furthermore, in the cartoon, the fairy Sprite wasn't just any fairy, but proved to be the daughter of the fairy king Oberon. Yes, that Oberon.
- In the cartoon, there was a rather goofy king, making Zelda's title fitting.
- In Wind Waker, she's the only known surviver of the royal line, although her ancient ancestor, the antediluvian King of Hyrule, is still alive. Not that this makes much difference, since when he dies and leaves her the throne, he takes all of Hyrule with him!
Taken to extremes with Princess Shine in Super Robot Wars. She's not only a ruling princess of the nation of Riksent, but the rest of the world is one nation! It's handwaved by saying that Riksent is a special area, but why don't we see any other leaders except for the President of the Federation?
- Well, in the first game, the space colonies were nominally separate. This troper doesn't recall seeing any explicit statement that Riksent is anything more than one of the member-nations in the Federation, apart from the commissioning of the Fairlions (and even those were intended for ceremonial purposes, albeit fully functional).
All of the female PCs in Odin Sphere are princesses, although none of them are useless. The only one who actually resembled this trope is Mercedes, who grows out of it a bit after she became queen.
The Expanded Universe of Sonic the Hedgehog has Princess Sally. There's not much princess-y about her, so probably the only reason she got the title in the first place was this trope (though the comics eventually expanded on this backstory).
- She was princess of the kingdom before it was taken over by Robotnik so it actually makes sense that she's still princess. She won't become queen until they take back the land and she can be crowned.
- In the comics, once they did take back the land, her parents were revealed to be alive, the powers that be tried to kill her off but got an Executive Veto, and an older brother popped up out of nowhere. Pretty strong evidence of a conspiracy to keep her a princess.
- Another example of a princess in a Sonic game would be Princess Elise. But she decidedly did not make things better in the trainwreck known as Sonic 2006.
  - Oh SHUT UP!
- And Blaze, though she's more the Defrosting Ice Queen type, and also one of the few new characters not hated by the fanbase.
Disgaea gives us demon princess Rozalin in the second game and human princess Sapphire Rhodonite in the third. Of course, Rhodonite has a (not unfounded) reputation as an unflinching berserker while Rozalin has a bloody history as Xenon, the "God of All Overlords"
Princesses were involved in all three of first Final Fantasy games. Final Fantasy I has Princess Sarah, not to be confused with Final Fantasy III's Princess Sara. And in Final Fantasy II, there is the original Princess-slash-La Resistance leader, Princess Hilda.
- Final Fantasy V has three: Lenna, Krile, and Faris, who is Lenna's long lost older sister. By about the halfway point of the game, they constitute three quarters of the playable characters, making FF 5 probably the most princess-heavy installment of the series.
- In Final Fantasy VIII, Rinoa leads La Resistance, and the others refer to her as a "princess." She's later revealed to be the daughter of a high-ranking member of the occupying country's government.
- Final Fantasy IX has Garnet/Dagger, who has a Heroic BSOD around the same time she's crowned queen.
- Subverted somewhat in Final Fantasy XII, in which Princess Ashe is the leader of La Resistance, all right, but can hardly be said to have it easy. She's stuck in a surprisingly realistic depiction of the burdens of a real leader, and is the one who has to make all the hard choices.
Subverted in The Witcher. Princess Adda is evil, power hungry, and spoiled. She tries to kill her father and usurp his throne, murder the hero to cover it up and at the end of the day she gets away with it all because of her social standing. She also started her life as a stillborn infant that was turned into a flesh eating monster and still has some leftover personality traits from that time including a taste for raw meat and an aggressive sexual appetite.
As mentioned before, Kingdom Hearts uses the full cast of Disney Princesses as "Princesses of Hearts", minus Pocahontas and Ariel (although she still appears) and plus Alice Lidell and the Nomura-designed character Kairi, who seems to be kind of the Princess of the Final Fantasy themed-world "Hollow Bastion/Radiant Garden". Despite this, she's shown to be a average school girl on Destiny Island and not especially beautiful compared to the other girl(s) on the Island. She's only distinguished from normal girls by her absolutely pure heart (Which seems to grant her the ability to strengthen the light in other peoples hearts, as seen with Sora) and her ability to unseal the keyhole of Radiant Garden. She can also wield a keyblade, but probably that's not due to her status as Princess.
- In fact, the only qualification for being a Princess on Heart is having a pure heart. Notice that only three of the seven Princess (Snow White, Aurora, and Jasmine) were actually royal by blood. While Cinderella and Belle would eventually become royalty by marriage, they hadn't yet in the continuity of the game.
Both averted and played straight in the Fire Emblem series. Put briefly, the series loves its royalty, especially princes and princesses who actually do something.
- Guinevere in Fire Emblem 6, who becomes a Rebellious Princess and joins Roy in his quest to stop her embittered and disenchanted older brother, King Zephiel.
- Fire Emblem 8 has three princesses. One of the main characters, Eirika, is a Lady Of War Princess and swordwoman from Renais. Her best friend, the Pegasus Knight Tana, is the princess of Frelia. And another friend of hers, L'Arachel, is the princess of Rausten.
- Elincia is only a princess in Fire Emblem 9; in Fire Emblem 10, she's The Woman Wearing The Queenly Mask, and is crowned at the end of the game. She's surprisingly competent at it given her mostly passive role in Path of Radiance. Sanaki, on the other hand, is both the empress and the apostle of Begnion.
Exception: Queen Ming in Lost Odyssey.
The Princess Maker series.
Ogre Battle takes this trope literally: a Princess is one of the (if not the absolute) best soldiers in the game, mostly for the fact that every soldier in a unit led by a Princess gets an extra attack. The Princess herself has a powerful, hit everyone, white magic attack, which is also subject to getting an extra by the previous ability.
Princess Kumatora in Mother 3. Both straight and subverted - the only reason she's a "princess" is because some people decided that everything's better with them.
The titular character of Tsukihime (literally "Moon Princess"), Arcueid Brunstud, is the princess of the True Ancestor vampires. Though she follows hardly any of the usual tropes, her title actually makes an odd amount of sense, since she was created by the nobility and had extremely limited freedom and a particular defined purpose in life (well...to hunt down and kill fallen True Ancestors, that is). Of course, Princess is still her formal title, despite being possibly the last (and certainly the last royal) True Ancestor still alive (having killed the other ones herself).
- As I understand it, her title of Princess (and more importantly, Brunstud) comes from the fact that she's the closest thing the True Ancestors were able to make to a clone of their progenitor, Crimson Moon Brunstead, the Type spirit of the Moon, and that her ability to summon Castle Brunstud is proof that one day Type Moon will revive in her body. Unless her pseudo little sister Altrouge Brunstud, who can also summon Castle Brunstud, does it first.
The Princess is a class in the Sega RPG 7th Dragon. It appears to be exactly equivalent to the bard-type class in similar games, supporting the other units in the party.
Compiling a list of all the princesses in the Suikoden series would take some time, and comparing them would take fair longer. Consider, though, Lady Of War Chrodechild; the young, innocent, and feisty Lymselia; and the Straight Arrow Flare, who stands directly between those extremes in terms of personality (and combat efficacy).
Two Words: Princess Pride.
The Touhou series, being a Pink Bishoujo Ghetto, naturally includes a number of princesses, including Yuyuko (princess of the spirit world), Kaguya (former princess of the moon), and the Watatsuki sisters (current princesses of the moon). A couple of other characters may also qualify: fanon has it that Alice may well be the daughter of the Queen of the Netherworld, for instance. However, only the Watatsuki sisters really behave in anything even remotely resembling a princessly manner; Kaguya, despite being a gracious hostess, is more of a sheltered Ojou, and Yuyuko... well, depending on who you ask, she's either The Ditz or one Magnificent Bastard.
- To be more precise, Yuyuko's the sort of girl who'd joke and laugh and make merry during a Mahjong match, so no-one'd take her seriously, then suddenly pull a big winning hand out of seemingly nowhere, as her opponents weren't paying enough attention to her plays.
There's Princess Olivia Von Roselia in Battle Fantasia, who is very much what you would expect out of a princess, kind-hearted and putting her kingdom above all else! Although she does cross the Rebellious Princess line a few times, as she does leave the castle, without her father's permission in order to solve the mystery of a bad omen, as well as consistently denying to return to the castle after being asked by one of her father's best friends, the Bunny Wizard, Watson. Also, considering it's a fighting game, she doesn't seem to mind solving some disputes with violence, despite her kind personality, and she does it well too.
There's also Estelle from Tales of Vesperia, who meets Yuri and follows him on an adventure in order to warn Flynn about danger. Oh, and also to discover a world outside of the royal palace.
Need an excuse for over-the-top bloody cartoon violence? Rescue the Fat Princess.
Valkyria Chronicles has Princess Cordelia, an effective figurehead ruler who has passed off responsibility for her nation to an obviously-evil Prime Minister for no evident reason; her parents were the Archduke and Duchess, so she wouldn't be a queen regardless, but for some reason, the idea of her coronation doesn't come up until the villain tries to marry her for control of Gallia.

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Lampshade Hanging on the whole phenomenon is done in this strip of Misfile.
Completely subverted in 8-Bit Theater with the princess taking over the Big Bad duties due to the absurd levels of incompentence shown by the rest of the villains.
Played straight so far in Last Resort with Princess Adharia Kuvoe, complete with Orphans Plot Trinket. Oh, and we forgot to mention, she's blonde with pink fur. Possibly a Rebellious Princess as well.
- Given that she's in some kind of cahoots with Veled in order to go gunning for her throne, she's accelerated a few notches.
The Princess Planet is... well, exactly what it says.
Lampshaded pretty thoroughly in the Punyverse of Sluggy Freelance. After all, who would ever have guessed that Secret Angel Princess-Princess is really... Princess Princess-Princess?
In Drowtales, maybe 1/3 of the cast is either the daughter, grandaughter, adopted daughter, etc., of an Ilharess; plus there is Vaelia, advertised as "An Emberi Princess", and "Queen Liriel Blueberry the Third".
- Partial aversion as well: only a handful (if that) have personalities that fit this trope.
The second alien Bob ever met in The Inexplicable Adventures of Bob is the beautiful Princess Voluptua. The first was Ahem, the three-legged talking jellyfish she was being forced to marry. Ew... Of course, she's not really humanoid ''either,'' but they're still physically very different.
The first arch of I Was Kidnapped by Lesbian Pirates from Outer Space is an attempt by the crew to find their long, lost Lesbian Princess. Which they do — it's just not the person they expect. The second arch appears to be about returning the princess to her mother.
In No Rest for the Wicked, November really is a princess (specifically, the princess from "The Princess and the Pea"); unfortunately, no one believes her, because traveling through the woods on her quest has made her look too ragged. (She can tell who really has royal blood and who doesn't, but that doesn't seem to be a common ability.) She subverts this trope at times and also plays it straight
Averted in Cwen's Quest where the princess is quickly exiled by her father and becomes a tough as nails fighter to get revenge. Also later she ends up the very young Queen of the kingdom next door.
Justified in Erfworld with Jillian Zamussels, since her side was destroyed by Stanley and the rules of the world mean she couldn't become queen. Of course, that's changing...

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Justified in Decades of Darkness, since the first part is in the time when royal marriages were real diplomacy.
The Nostalgia Critic lampshades this trope during his reviews for the Sonic the Hedgehog cartoons and Captain N, saying that Sally, look at the page quote, and Lana should actually be queens since their fathers are missing.

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In the Fosters Home for Imaginary Friends special, Destination Imagination, Frankie is referred to as Princess Frankie throughout a majority of the plot by her new imaginary friend, World, who even treats her as such by giving Frankie her own castle made entirely of chocolate and giving her a ball gown and a collection of tiaras. She even acts as the Distressed Damsel of the story.
All the fairies of Winx Club are princesses. Except the main character, who's a normal girl from Earth... oh, yeah. She turned out to be a princess too. Look at that.
- Strictly speaking, only Bloom, Stella and Layla/Aisha are princesses in both versions. Musa is a princess in the US version. Flora is never mentioned as a princess in either version, and we never get any background on Tecna. (Not even in the 3rd season, where everyone's supposed to save someone from their own realm. But an early S1 episode in the US dub does have Stella explicitly put down Tecna as a non-princess, albeit under the influence of a spell that wasn't there in the original.)
Rather savagely parodied in Drawn Together, via Princess Clara's mix of naivete and outright racism.
Elyon in WITCH is revealed as a princess fairly early on. She hung a lampshade on it in during the Nerissa arc when, after mediating an endless series of boundary disputes, she remarked that she was getting the "queen" part of being a princess, but missing out on the "princess" part (the Prince Charming, the moonlight balls, etc.).
Following Disney tradition, Mira Nova of Buzz Lightyear of Star Command, the only woman on Buzz's team, is an alien princess. The show takes the intangibility of her people of more importance than her blue blood, though, and has even been shown to resent her royalty being acknowledged ("Good one your Highness!" "Just call me Mira...").
Kim Possible may have harbored some subversives within Disney: the mocking way in which Shego would insult Kim by calling her "Princess" might be a dig at the entire phenomenon.
- Of course, Shego probably would know what being a princess is like... *cough*NicoleSullivan*cough*
Subverted in Avatar the Last Airbender. Katara's father Hakoda is a tribal chieftain, but not nobility. Azula is a princess, but evil through and through. Toph might be taking this a little more straight: while not a princess, she is from a noble family, though she's dislikes it and is as far from The Chick as is physically possible. There's also Princess Yue.
- You know, if you think about, Yue's title of Princess doesn't exactly make sense, as she's in the same position of Katara (daughter of the tribal leader), it's just that her tribe is bigger.
  - Yes, but they could also have slightly different customs regarding the treatment of the "ruling" family (i.e. they do not marry "peasants"). The differences in upper and lower class were much more apparent in the Northern Water Tribe as well — they seemed to have some sort of High Council that sat with the chief, whereas the Southern Water Tribe seemed much more informal with regards to social status.
  - However, Sokka DOES say that he's "something of a prince" in his own tribe, which WOULD make Katara a princess. The Southern Water Tribe is just so much smaller that one could assume everyone was on a first-name basis and the title just never got used. In fact, the only people in the Southern Water Tribe who really talk to Katara ARE her family, and they wouldn't use the title, would they? Azula and Zuko never really refer to each other by title.
  - Sokka may have just been trying to impress Yue. It really kind of depends: are either Katara or Sokka in line to succeed Hakoda?
Princess Candy in Dave the Barbarian, although this played for laughs like everything else in the show.
- Candy is actually something of a subversion. She doesn't much want to be ruler, she'd much rather just be a normal eighteen-year-old girl. Normal eighteen-year-old girls hang out with their friends and worry if their outfit will impress boys. Princesses who have been left in charge while their parents fight evil have to rule the country, which is far more time-consuming than most people are inclined to believe and involves an obscene amount of paperwork. It actually gets to the point where she gets so fed up with being robbed of the years of her life where her responsibilities are minimal that she actually abdicates to Dave temporarily so she can just go do stuff.
Princess Gwenevere/Starra of Princess Gwenevere/Starra and the Jewel Riders.
Lady Lovely Locks is a Princess in the show of the same name.
Even Danny Phantom has one in the form of Princess Dorathea, who has the ability to turn into a dragon via a pendent. Her life isn't as glamorous as she looks though: she has an abusive brother whom she's stuck doing various slave labor-inducing tasks for.
Two of the Dora the Explorer specials invoke this: "Dora's Fairytale Adventure" has her journey to become a princess to wake up her Sidekick Boots from an enchanted sleep, and "Dora Saves the Snow Princess" is not only Exactly What It Says On The Tin, but has her become the new Snow Princess at the end.
Aelita from Code Lyoko is nicknamed "Princess" by her friends since early on in Season 1. She has Reality Warper powers on Lyoko, and the unique ability to deactivate the Towers. At the end of Season 2, we learn that she is actually the daughter of the creator of Lyoko... making her indeed the Princess of this virtual world.
Princess Natasha: Student Secret Agent Princess, a flash animation series developed for AOL Kids.
She-Ra: Princess of Power: Technically, Adora is a princess (Prince Adam/He-Man's twin sister) but the show doesn't play that aspect of her up. Fortunately, Glimmer's around to take up the princessly slack.
Phantom Girl from The Legion of Superheroes, technically a president's daughter, but otherwise fits.
The 2009 Strawberry Shortcake revamp reintroduces the Berrykins, who are ruled by Princess Berrykin (not to be mistaken for the Berry Princess, who took care of the Berrykins, from the 1985 special).
For the same reason that Everything Is Better With Lakes is redshifted, the Disney-influenced adaptation of Swan Lake was call The Swan Princess.

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